Sharecropping and Sharecroppers

First Published in 1983. Of all the social relationships that exist in the countryside in contemporary poor countries, and which have existed in the past in ‘developed’ countries, that of share tenancy is among the most significant and the most fascinating. It is, and has been, geographically widespread, varied in its manifestations, and historically tenacious. Sharecropping has been singled out frequently in land reform programmes as a candidate for elimination. Yet it persists, often in disgui